River Toll
by Briianz
Summary: A group of three survivors are heading to Riverside because they heard there was an evacuation on going on there. On the way there, They will encounter both new friends and new foes. Features several OC's. Rated M for future chapters and future lemon.
1. Ch 1 New Beginnings

**Author's Note: Hi everybody, Briianz here. Here's another Left 4 Dead fanfiction for all you readers out there.**

**This story is a collaboration between me and a fellow fanfiction member that goes by the name of Tabuu99 (Not a bad author, by the way, look him up).**

**He'll have three of his own characters starring in this story while I will feature Ryan from my other Left 4 Dead stories. They will be going through Death Toll, one of my favorite campaigns of the game.**

**Tabuu will be starting off this chapter. Enjoy.**

Tabuu's POV

"Safe-house up ahead!" I yelled over what sounded like millions of zambies. I know what your thinking, but I am trying to lighten the mood, so I call them zambies.

Anyway, Nebula was already inside and right before I could go in, I was tackled by a Hunter. It slammed me in the back and I cried out in pain. Just then, a katana went through its head and its body went limp.

Twilight, the only girl in this three person group, helped me up and I said, "Thanks."  
We both ran inside and closed the big red door.  
"We should stay here for the night, so your wounds can heal." Twilight said.  
I was about to disagree with her when she gave me a look. "Fine, we will stay here for the night."

**Meanwhile, Several Miles away...**

Nobody's POV

The night sky was filled with many stars tonight. On a road that was close to Riverside was a car driving at about 45 miles per an hour. When suddenly, the car stopped; it was out of gas. The man that was driving got out of the car and loaded the revolver at was in his hands. The man was none other than Ryan.

Ryan's POV

"I guess I'll have to walk the rest of the way to riverside..." I thought to myself. I opened the back truck of the car I drove here to load up on supplies. In the back truck was two first-aid kits and a pile of ammo. I took all the ammunition that I can carry and moved on. I'm going to have to leave the car behind... I turned on the light that was attached to my revolver, The Silver Bull, and continued on.

There weren't that much zombies/infected around; It was like as if somebody has been through here already. There were a few strays here and there, but other than that, there was next to no infected around. There **were** a few zombie corpses around.

The bridge that I had to cross was out. I had to go up and down a few ladders just to get to the other side. After passing the bridge, I found that I had to go through a tunnel. In the tunnel were many abandoned cars.

Anyways, I was heading to Riverside because I heard (from a radio transmission) that there was an evacuation going on there. Before the infection, I had never been to Riverside; So, this is all new territory for me. Riverside was about an hour away from here by foot. I should be there before the sun rises.

After going though the tunnel (Nothing special happened in the tunnel except for more zombie corpses), I saw a saferoom door in the distance. As I approached the door, I heard talking coming from the inside. There was some survivors already inside the saferoom.

I started hugging the wall next to the door and called out "Hello? Is anyone in there?"

Tabuu's POV

Twilight was tending to my wound when we heard someone outside say, "Hello? Is anyone in there?"  
I was about to see who it was when Twilight put her hand on my bare shoulder. To get to the claw marks the Hunter made, I had to take off my black T-shirt.

"Nebula, go see who it is." I ordered him.  
With a grunt, he sat up and went towards the door. When he opened it, Twilight had just patched up the last cut and said, "You're good to go."

I put my shirt back on and looked at her. I have known her since we were kids. About a month ago, I started to like her. I had just met Nebula a few hours after the infection.

Anyway, a guy came in and Nebula quickly shut and barred the door.  
"Who the hell are you?" I asked the man.

The man replied, "The name's Ryan. Are you guys headed for the evac in Riverside? I gonna head there too."

"Are you infected?" I asked him.  
"No, I'm immune from what I could tell."  
"Perfect. Now we have a group of four who are immune." Nebula said.  
"First of all, we're staying here for the night and second, it's my call as leader."

"Tabuu, we have a better chance of...", Twilight began, I interrupted her by saying. "He is coming with us."

Ryan and Nebula slept on the other side of the room leaving me and Twilight alone.  
"Tabuu, can I sleep with you?" she asked as she began to cuddle next to me.  
"Sure, but why?"

"I can't sleep alone knowing what's outside."  
"I can understand that. Some of the infected still have...", I started.  
"Emotions." Twilight finished and I nodded. "Like the Witch?" she asked.  
"Yup. That's why when we came across that one before we met Nebula, I couldn't stand to kill it."  
"Even though it almost killed you?"  
"Yup. Now let's get to sleep." I said and we both drifted to sleep.

Ryan's POV

As the rest of my party slept, I got up quietly and went up to the exit door. I decided to scout ahead to get a general idea of where we were headed. I attached a suppressor to my revolver and headed out, trying my best not wake up anybody. I'll return to the saferoom before anyone notices that I'm gone. It seems like the safehouse exit leads straight to the sewers.

I fired at a few of the infected that were just wondering around, so that they won't be a problem later. I would use my shotgun that I had stored away in my satchel, but it's a bit too loud; I'm aiming for stealth here. Though it was night, the infected never seems to sleep. I, personally, couldn't sleep soundly at night because they could start eating you while you slept, you would be dead before you would wake up.

The three people I just met in that safehouse seems alright. Although, I might have to keep an eye on Tabuu. It doesn't seem like he trusts me; but then again...we just met. I could see why he wouldn't trust me.

It seems that if we keep following the sewers, we would eventually find our way out of them. Knowing that, I quietly went back to the safe-house. When I got back, Tabuu, Twilight, and Nebula were all still asleep. I still didn't feel sleepy; So, I guess I might as well keep watch for the night.

I decided to keep the suppressor on my revolver, so that just in case if I have to fire it, I won't accidentally wake up anyone. I checked my waist-watch and saw that it was around midnight. The rest of the group will probably wake up in a couple of hours. I should use that packet of instant coffee that I have in my satchel; So that I could stay awake as I'm keeping watch...

**Author's Note: And that was chapter one. Hope you all enjoyed it.**

**The next chapter will take place when all the characters wake up in the next morning.**

**See ya in the next chapter.**


	2. Ch 2 The Sewers

**Author's Note: I had updated chapter one to change some of Ryan's lines due to what's gonna happen in future chapters (or rather the past...Hint hint). But it's not a major update. It's not like you have to go back and reread it.**

**To the Reviewer, Tabuu got "Zambies" from Uberhaxornova. **

**Here's his exact words: "I was watching "Uberhaxornova" play Call of Duty Black Ops with a friend. They said "Zambies" from time to time. That is where I got it from."**

**Anyways apart from that message, time to continue on with the story. I will be starting it. Enjoy.**

Nobody's POV

In a sewer system near Riverside, There was a group of four laying low in a safehouse. The time was about 7:00 in the morning. Ryan has been keeping watch all night. He was on instant coffee and two hours worth of sleep. Ryan got up from where he was keeping watch to wake up everyone else in his group.

Ryan's POV

I checked my waist-watch for about the one-hundredth time and saw that it was seven o' clock. When I was keeping watch, I had to fire my revolver a few times because a few of the infected came knocking (or pounding, in reality). I should wake up everyone. I wonder how long they will be running the evacuation at Riverside. We should arrive in Riverside before noon.

I yelled, "Ok everyone, Wake up! It's Seven o' clock! Time to get moving!"

Tabuu's POV

My eyes instantly opened and when I tried to get up, I couldn't. For two reasons, One, Twilight was hugging me and two, I still felt a little bit of pain from my cuts on my back.

Twilight woke up soon and once, she saw what she was doing, she said, "Sorry, Tabuu."  
"It's ok, but we should really get a move on." I said.  
Once everyone was ready, we opened the door and ran out.

Ryan's POV

When we left the safehouse, it was all quiet. There was still a few corpses here and there from my scouting trip last night. The smell of the sewers was so damn horrible. The smell of human waste and decaying corpses do not mix well. It was all quiet until all four of us heard a horde coming towards us.

We all saw them coming towards us, we opened fire on them. I quickly put my revolver away and took out my shotgun. Though the roar of the many zombies, I (somehow) could barely make out the sounds of a distant spitter.

Then, I heard Nebula say, "Spit coming!". And sure enough, we soon found ourselves standing in a rather huge pool of the acid-like spit. We all basically scattered just to avoid it. I saw the spitter in the direction of where we were suppose to go. Twilight, with her dual sub-machine guns, fired at it. The spitter couldn't take the barrage of bullets and died, leaving behind a small paddle of her blistering spit.

Tabuu's POV

We made our way through the sewers and as soon as we were forced to trek through the filthy water, we all hear a somewhat loud wheeze/moan. I had just killed a Hunter when I felt a tremendous force hit me. It carried me some distance away and then stopped. It then began to smack me into the dirty water.

"Someone help me!", I yelled.  
I had thrown a pipe bomb before I got tackled, so my weapons were not in my hands.

Ryan's POV

"A charger got Tabuu!", Twilight said.

"I got him!", I replied.

I was the one closest to him even though the charger got him several yards away from us. The horde was chasing after a pipe bomb that Tabuu had thrown before he was snatched by that charger. I ran towards the charger and Tabuu and unloaded my shotgun on the charger's back. The charger shortly died after several bullets. I extended my hand towards Tabuu to pick him up.

Then I said, "Need some help getting up?"

Tabuu's POV

I grabbed his hand and said, "Thanks."  
I got my pump shotgun out and once we regrouped, we headed up a ramp. We came out and saw that in order to continue, we had to close the flood gates.

Ryan's POV

"Those flood gates are gonna really loud once we start closing them...", I said.

After a few moments, I went over to the switch, pressed it, and said, "I'm hittin' it." And sure enough, I was right. The roar of the infected echoes through the sewers. "They're coming!", I said. The infected starts pouring out of the tunnel that we had to go through to get here and even more were coming from where we had to go.

I fired several bullets into the horde. My bullets didn't seem to do much. For every zombie/infected that I killed, two more seemed to appear out of nowhere to take it's place...but, it seems like they weren't running at us; it looked like they were running **past** us.

Tabuu's POV

A few seconds after Ryan flipped the switch, we were surprised to see the infected. But they looked like they were running away from something. I even saw a Tank running away.

"What could be so scary that frightens a Tank?", I asked Ryan.  
Just then, another Tank but way different came out before the first flood gate closed. It had a huge hump on its back and from that hump came about 3-5 really long tentacles.

Ryan answered, "That would that...**thing**."

"What the fuck is that!", I asked yelling as it looked at Twilight with a smile.

It slowly made its way towards Twilight.  
We all unloaded our guns on it, but the worst that the bullets did to it was slow it down. I shot one of its tentacles and that seemed to do something. I picked up a katana on the ground and charged at it. It saw me coming and swiped at me with its large fits.

I narrowly dodged it and when I jumped on its back, I slashed at a few of the tentacles. When they fell off, the monster roared in anger and it used another one to hit me and sent me flying into a wall.

Ryan's POV

After Tabuu tried his luck at the monster, He had hit a wall. He also wasn't moving anymore, I hope that "thing" didn't killed him. I was starting to like him especially after all those slick moves he did trying to attack the monster. When Tabuu was attacking the monster, I noticed that he was aiming primarily for its tentacles. Were the tentacles the weak point? I'm going to have to test this out first hand.

Nebula must have noticed what Tabuu was aiming for too because he put his guns away and took out a fire axe. The closest thing I have to a cutting weapon would be the combat knife that I had received from an old friend of mine. I put my revolver away and pulled out said knife and went to join Nebula in his fight.

I heard Nebula say, "Twilight, Run for it! It's aiming for **you**!".

Twilight did as she was told and ran away right when the flood gates were fully closed. When Tabuu attacked the monster, He managed to cut off two of the tentacles, leaving behind only three left. I started hacking away at one of the tentacles while jump dodging a tentacle and/or a claw that the monster kept swing at both me and Nebula. After Nebula managed to cut off one of the tentacles (leaving only two left), The infected monster roared in pain. After he recovered from the pain, He turns his back on us and starts going in Twilight's direction.

I shouted, "Get back here! We're not done with you yet!"

With the infected's back turned towards us, he left his "hump" fully exposed. The "hump" was where the roots of the tentacles were coming from. Both me and Nebula chased after it. Then, we both jumped and we each took out a tentacle. Monster let out one final roar and fell flat on it's face, it was finally dead...


	3. Ch 3 Lost & Found Love

**Author's Note: Tabuu is starting off this chapter. This chapter is mostly just a long flashback. Enjoy.**

Twilight's POV

As soon as I was sure that thing was dead, I ran over to Tabuu. I really liked him, ever since we were kids.  
When I got there, I saw that he was still breathing which made me feel a little better. Nebula picked up his body and Ryan said, "There must be a safe room nearby. We will take him there and wait until he wakes up."

As we made our way out of the sewers, I heard Tabuu groan, "Twilight..."

Ryan's POV

We had managed to find our way out of the sewers by doing some climbing. We found ourselves in a yard that had several infected. I also saw a safehouse up ahead and said, "There's a safehouse in that Caboose." We made our way to the safehouse while killing off the infected that started coming towards us. Eventually, We all made it inside.

Tabuu's POV  
(in a dream)

I woke up on a very familiar beach. It was the one me and Twilight used to go to a-lot. I looked next to me and saw her.  
I hugged her and said, "I am so happy you're okay."  
She put her arms around me and said, "And I am glad you're okay too."  
Once we stopped hugging, we looked each other in each other's eye. "I have to tell you something Twilight."

(Not realizing it, but he woke up)

"What is th..." I interrupted her by pressing my lips against her's.

Ryan's POV

Seeing Tabuu and Twilight like that kinda reminded me of Rosa. Thinking about Rosa made me remember what happened before I got here with the car. It was back in the city when me, Rosa, and a friend were headed to a market for an evacuation. That evacuation would later turn out to be a lie set up by people who just wanted weapons, ammo, and (possibly) supplies. They had left me to die, Rosa and Miles were both killed by them...

**Several Days Earlier...**

"_Ryan, C'mon, I just got word that there is an evacuation going on over at the Farmer's Market." Miles said._

_I replied, "Really? Alright. Rosa, you heard the man. Let's go."_

_Rosa replied, "Bien."_

_I got up out of my seat, grabbed my revolver, and opened the exit to the safehouse we were laying low in. We've been that safehouse for about three days now. Those three days were very boring and uneventful. The farmer's market was about fifteen minutes away by foot. Miles had his double-barreled shotgun and Rosa had her claws._

_Rosa was a hunter that could talk and still had her human senses. How she is like that is anybody's guess. Not even Rosa, herself, knew. It might have something to do with her brain. Both me and Rosa share a love for each other ever since what happened over at Fort Red Night._

_Miles was a guy that I found when I was exploring City hall. Up to the point to where I found him, he was staying in a fortified apartment. He only has a glock and that shotgun that he found. Miles was only several years younger then me. He is such a good person to have around during a zombie infection._

_As we made our way to the farmer's market, we noticed that the corpses on the streets weren't just the infected, some of them was uninfected humans. The corpses of the uninfected humans would usually have half-empty guns, blood, and claw marks on their bodies. I even saw a corpse that had a bullet hole in the side of her head with a pistol next to her hand. I guess she couldn't handle it all. She's in a better place now while the rest of us are going through hell right now._

_Eventually, Me and my group found ourselves in the market. It didn't take long for us to find our supposed evac team. There was about ten or so of them. When they saw us coming, they told us to stay where we were before they could take us to a "safe place"._

"_Halt! Are you survivors that heard our message over the radio?" One of them called out._

_I replied, "Yeah, How is it gonna work?"_

_Another one of them replies, "We're gonna cavity search you one at a time and then, we'll take you to a safe place."_

_I didn't like the way he said "safe place". First, they searched Miles. When they were about to search Rosa, the guy that was gonna search her said, "Hey Frank, This one is one of them!"_

_I stepped in and said, "It's okay, she's harmless."_

_Another man came out of the shadows (This man was Frank, apparently) and he said, "Oh yeah, How do we know she won't claw our eyes out?"_

_Miles replied, "She probably would have done that to me and Ryan here already."_

_Frank replies, "I see your point there. But, how do we know you won't turn into one of them any second now? She might have spread the green flu to you guys."_

_I replied, "Well, I know I'm fully immune, but Miles doesn't know if he is immune or not..."_

_I had never really thought about that before. Both Miles and the fact that we could turn any minute._

_Frank said, "Boys, Kill them all!"_

_Miles said, "What?"_

_I said, "Whoa whoa, Don't you think that's a bit harsh?"_

_Frank replied, "I don't think so. We have to cleanse this entire world of the infected and that includes your hunter friend."_

_The guy that searched Miles pulled out a desert eagle and rised it towards Miles' face. Before he was shot, he said, "Ryan, Rosa, RUN!". The man fired one bullet and Miles was shot directly in his forehead. The man moved on to Rosa, but before he could fire a shot, I shot at him first with my revolver. They had failed to restrain me._

_The guy that killed Miles dropped onto the ground. Dead or not, I didn't care. I yelled to Rosa, "Rosa! This way." and we ran away. As we were running away, the "evac team" chased us with guns blazing. As both me & Rosa ran, two or three bullets managed to hit her in the back and her leg._

_Rosa fell on the ground as soon as she was hit. I picked her up and carried her. After awhile of running away, we soon found a car that had the ignition keys already inside. Then, we took off in said car. I put Rosa in the passenger seat; When I did, I heard her mumble something, but I didn't hear her._

_So, I drove off, Leaving our pursuers behind. After making sure they stopped following us, I stopped to check Rosa's wounds. She was still conscious, but I was slowly losing her._

_I said, "Rosa! Stay with me! I'll heal your wounds like I did before." I reached into my satchel and dug around for a medkit._

_She replied, "__Ryan...I can't make it. I'm losing too much blood."_

"_No, You can make it." I found my first-aid kit and opened it._

_She placed her hand on mine and said, "Je t'aime, Ryan...". Then, her hand went limp._

"_Rosa? Rosa! No no...NO!" _

_Before her death, I had never cried since about grade school. After she died, I started to cry. The one I loved was dead..._

_After I was done crying, I had gotten out of the car and buried her in front of a shady tree. There was a conveniently placed shovel in the back seat of the car. After I had finished burying her, I had carved into the tree, her name and this message: "Here lies Rosa, The caring hunter who could love."_

**Back to Present Day...**

As for Miles' burial, I had no body to bury. After I buried her, I drove around aimlessly. That is until I ran out of gas...


End file.
